Selection for Docility in Limousin

by Alex McDonald, General Manager, ALBS

September 2006

The Limousin Experience

Limousin Society members have been scoring flightiness using the crush test and the yard test since 1995 and have now submitted scores for some 21,400 calves.

The problem with using raw scores to evaluate docility is that some cattle get a lot more handling than others before they are scored and each person who scores may score differently.

To take out the effects of prior handling and variation in scorers and to provide a ranking based on the scoring of progeny in many herds we use all of the scores and pedigrees available to calculate Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) for docility for sires, dams and their calves.

EBVs for docility were first calculated and published for about 85 Limousin sires in 2000.

Since 2002 docility EBVs have been calculated for sires, dams and calves. These EBVs are available from the Limousin website and now most of the animals in Limousin sales have EBVs for docility

Has The Breed Made Genetic Progress?

There are two measures of progress. The first is to compare the docility EBVs of the 20 most widely used sires for 1998 born calves with the 20 most widely used sires for the 2005 born calves.

Table 1. 20 Most Widely Used AI Sires for 1998 Born Calves

Rank	Name	Docility EBV
1	Wulfs Choice	+42
2	NMCC Polled Black Powder	+36
3	Ramornie Polled Power Pack L51	-5
4	Refstrup Tabias	+36
5	WLCC No Substitute	-5
6	Mash Accolade	-10
7	Collian Park Hague	-15
8	Genial	-21
9	Kayenbe Phantom	-20
10	Cane Ridge Poll Stacker	+11
11	Heros Bis	+9
12	Broadmeadows Tombola	-10
13	Harvest Olympus	-19
14	Bodell Your Kidding	+2
15	Felah	-18
16	LKCC Tomahawks Touchdown	+42
17	Hammel Buffalo	+24
18	Kayenbe Nero	-16
19	Crawfordpark Uplands Hannibal	-15
20	Tango (Curragh)	-23

Average Docility EBV +1.2 12 bulls with negative EBVs

Table 2. 20 Most Widely Used AI Sires for 2005 Born Calves

Rank	Name	Docility EBV
1	Ionesco	+54
2	DJ Gentleman in Black	+15
3	Bilati Xavier	+30
4	Dauphin	+39
5	Wulfs Lowell	+17
6	Wulfs Rambler	+19
7	Refstrup Tabias	+36
8	Chaz First Choice	+64
9	Mas Du Clo	+25
10	Muscleor	+33
11	Wulfs Guardian	+63
12	EXLR Latigo	+38
13	Donna Valley William Of Orange	+26
14	Sundowner Fancy	+20
15	Wulfs Choice	+42
16	Premier Breakthru	+15
17	Benika Upper Class	+32
18	NMCC Polled Black Powder	+36
19	1-Way Polled Kana	+22
20	DEVT Polled Deon	+46

Average Docility EBV +33.6 No sires with negative EBVs

There has clearly been a big improvement in the average docility EBV of the 20 most widely used AI sires and much lower use of very negative sires since 1998.

By calculating the average docility EBV for the calves born each year the genetic change for the breed can be tracked.

Table 3 shows the average docility EBVs for calves born each year since 1990.

Table 3. Genetic Trend for Calves

Note that there was very little change from 1990 to 2000 but since then the average docility EBV has increased from +1.6 for 2000 born calves to +11.3 for 2005 born calves.